Do you think gaudy colours can gloss over the misery of the world? Do you think loud orgies of good taste can drown the moans of the tortured earth? … Art is the sacred torch that must shed its merciful light into all life’s terrible depths, into every shameful and sorrowful abyss; art is the divine flame that must set fire to the world, until … Continue reading Thomas Mann (1875-1955), on the Purpose of Art ::

… what grows lives and is alive only through the feeling of its contact with other mysterious worlds. If that feeling grows weak or is destroyed in you, the heavenly growth will die away in you. Then you will be indifferent to life and even grow to hate it. That’s what I believe. – Father Zosima, a character in The Brothers Karamazov Continue reading Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881), on Other Worlds ::

I’ve had three blogs prior to this one. None of them exist today. I designed them for specific purposes and named them accordingly. That was their death knell. When I became disinterested in that purpose or felt constrained, the blog went to the glue factory. So when I started ‘Swimming with Elephants’, my chief desire was that it survive. I had to defuse my desire … Continue reading Why swim with elephants? ::